Fultoni sp

[alwynmarais]

Hi All

This shell was picked up at a beach in Richards Bay, South Africa. There are extensive fossil beds in the area, especially in the harbour area. My question is this - is it a fossil or a beached <i>C. fultoni</i>. The shell possesses the distinctive dorsal tubercules of C. zietsmani, but not the resessed, almost edentate columellar peristome. One other point of concern may be the spotting on the side of the shell which i dont know if it will be visible in a fosil. The shell also comes from northern Natal and not from the area off Port Elizabeth as given for C. zietsmani. I am not aware of C. fultoni washing up on the beach as it lives too deep.

Picture at <a href="http://www.badongo.com/pic/561349" target="_blank"><!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.badongo.com/pic/561349">http://www.badongo.com/pic/561349</a><!-- m --></a>

Any help would be appreciated.

Alwyn Marais

[alwynmarais]

Hi All

What i would like to establish is whether this is a fossil or not. American collectors have much more experience in fossils than we have as they are more readily available there. Any comments would be appreciated.

Kind regards
Alwyn

[tigris]

hello, Alwyn,

it is deffiniately related to fultoni, because you can clearly see the marginal spotting, same as fultoni, but i am not sure which it can be. fultoni indeed lives too deep to wash-up on a beach... maybe a fish has eaten it, fish was caught, and shell thrown away, a very long time ago...

regards,
Jeroen

[dave r]

Barycypraea yes, fultoni, possibly. It looks to be a subfossil to me. I would suggest you send the picture to Felix Lorenz and let him have a look. He does have a large collection of fossil and subfossil cowries so he would be the one to know.
Dave